Contractors, Subtrades & Developers
Construction accounting has rules of its own: revenue that spans year-ends, holdbacks that aren't income until they're releasable, and a dedicated CRA reporting regime for payments to subcontractors. It's also one of the industries the CRA reviews most actively.
Construction accounting lives or dies on two things: knowing which jobs actually made money, and getting holdbacks and subcontractor reporting right so the CRA has no reason to look twice.
How we help
- Job costing and work-in-progress tracking so you know which projects actually make money
- Holdback treatment at year-end — recognized when releasable, not before
- T5018 subcontractor reporting, filed on time, every year
- Subcontractor-versus-employee reviews before the CRA does one for you
- GST on new construction and substantial renovations, including new housing rebates
- WorkSafeBC registration and reporting for your crews
- Equipment purchases structured for the best capital cost allowance outcome
Common mistakes we see
- Recognizing holdback revenue when it's billed instead of when it's releasable — this overstates income and can push you into tax on money you haven't been paid yet.
- Treating long-term subcontractors as contractors when the CRA would call them employees. A reassessment here means back CPP, EI, and penalties — we review this before it becomes your problem.
- Missing the annual T5018 information return for subcontractor payments, or filing it late. It's easy to overlook and the penalties add up.
- Not tracking work-in-progress by job, so a profitable quarter hides two projects that lost money.
The British Columbia angle
BC construction carries WorkSafeBC obligations that trip up growing crews — registration, classification, and reporting all have to line up. On new housing and substantial renovations, the GST/HST new housing rebate and the rules on self-supply are genuinely technical, and getting the timing wrong is expensive. We handle both.